He lifted the creamy brown liquid to his lips, inhaling the smoky aroma before taking a tentative sip. The coffee, had some of it's bitterness mitigated by the milk, but untouched by sugar, he was able to appreciate the uniquely acrid taste of the local special blend. For a moment he sat pondering the flavors in his head, musing over the complexities before he slowly put down the mug.

  "That is some mediocre coffee," he said, giving it a dirty look. "It doesn't even have the common decency to be bad in a good way. Sorry Dr. Nutts," he gave an apology to his dentist before taking the sugar bowl and tipping over an unhealthy portion into that affront coffee.

  "You said you knew what could have happened," the young girl said, anxiety apparent in her voice. "To the person I mean."

  "Nah, I said I would help you," Banks admitted. "And I will. Try at least. Sorry, I'm still slightly flabbergasted. If it's not too personal do you mind if I ask what you know about the gods. Do you worship any or..."

  "We have a shrine to Lady Attinus," the elderly man, who was probably a butler said. "On important occasions we frequent the The Temple of Light."

  "The God of the Light is a respectable one. Doesn't go around giving itself names and pretending to be human," he blasphemed, drinking down the sugary swill. "Okay, if I'm right, and I may very well not be, your mother has been infected by a god called the Festering Stream."

  "That's absurd," the butler immediately said. "Let's go Galayne."

  "Why do you think that it's absurd?" the girl asked, ignoring her butler.

  "Because it's a god," the butler interjected and was ignored.

  "Because the conditions are not correct," Banks corrected. "The Festering Stream appears at the end of empires and both symbolizes and exacerbates the decay. Even with the Undying Emperor dead that doesn't equate to rot. That's more like impending implosion."

  "The undying Emperor's dead," the butler said, giving a confused look.

  "Uh, let's try that again," Banks said.

  -8 seconds

  "The Festering Stream appears at the end of empires and both symbolizes and exacerbates the decay. Even if the Undying Empire was decaying, which I don't think it is. The first cases would occur at the capital. A fish always rots from the head," he said pausing as his food, a magnificent steak dinner was placed in front of him and he lifted his knife and fork and dug in.

  "So is there any way to prove, that she has been corrupted by a god," the butler said after a while. "I'm skeptical, but I won't abandon a chance."

  "Just go to the Church of Light and buy as many Protection from Evil talismans as you can," Banks said, adding a bit of salt to his steak. "If there's an immediate improvement in their condition then we know for certain who the culprit is." He had barely finished speaking when the butler snapped his fingers and a young man ran up, from his position standing innocuously in the corner.

  "Go to the Church, get the talismans and give them to the Lady," the Butler said handing him a silver note. "Report back any change."

  "Please hurry," the girl said, as the young man set off.

  "If that is the case, then is their a way to save her," the butler asked.

  "-ure," Banks said, before he stopped, swallowed his food and started again. "Sure, it's a local effect. If it actually is the Festering Stream then just taking her out of the city should cause the effect to disappear immediately."

  "That simple?" the butler asked.

  "Yeah, why wouldn't it be," Banks said. "This is actually pretty good." He ate in silence for a while, as the girl just pushed her food around and the butler sat, seemingly alert and vigilant. He was almost finished with his plate when the young man burst into the restaurant, before sprinting towards the table.

  "It worked," he said, completely out of breath. "The lady is awake, she's asking after you." At once the young girl sprang to her feet, starting to run off before she paused, as if waiting for the butler to hurry up and follow her. The older man stood up, and called the waiter over.

  "Please put everything on the Mondue family," the butler said, before turning towards him. "Feel free to continue ordering, and please come visit the estate once you're done. We greatly appreciate your help, but we would like to discuss the situation further." Without waiting for a response he turned around and strode out of the room and the girl followed in front.

  "No problem," Banks said raising his fork with his last piece of steak attached, "You're not too bad. Hey Mr. Waiter can I see the dessert menu. Also could I please have something sweeter than coffee to drink." He watched them go, before he shrugged. "I'll go sort that out later."

  xxx

  "Please come on through, the lord has been waiting for you?" one of the two guards at the gate of the Mondue Manor said. Decked out in expensive full armor, they bore the marks of experience. The type of guards that you wouldn't want to tangle with lightly, or indeed at all. But they were surprisingly polite, immediately opening the gate as soon as he approached, It was nice not to have to fight his way in for a change, felt like he was getting the real five start treatment.

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  "Thanks," he said to the guard, waving at him on his way past, before one of them peeled off and walked by his side.

  "Follow me to the Lord," he said. "The Mondue family grounds are extensive and we wouldn't want you getting lost."

  "Some of the best days that I've ever had have been triggered by me getting lost," Banks admitted.

  "Be that as it may I believe that my bosses would really like to speak to you," the guard shut him down. "You may be able to explore later, but right now there is something more urgent."

  "Urgent is relative," Banks said. "But then again I suppose this whole manor is full of relatives. Lead the way guard man."

  "That is what I was doing already," the guard said, with a slightly annoyed tone, as he led the the time traveler throughout the mansion. He seemed to get visibly more irritated as Banks made it a point to examine every piece of artwork, every grand tapestry and every ornate statue on their way, which he didn't really get. Why would rich people spend inordinate amounts of money on ornamental junk if they didn't want him to look at it and be amazed. Some of his gasps of surprise and delight were even sincere. Eventually after a walk that lasted ten minutes and felt like twenty, the guard led him to a door and knocked twice.

  "Our guest has arrived," the guard said, speaking to whomever was behind the door. For a brief few seconds the silence remained.

  "Enter," a dignified stately voice said and the guard pushed open the door and moved to the side, allowing him to see, what was clearly a bedroom. In the middle of the room, sat a pale woman that was practically covered in Talismans. In fact far too many talismans. That many talismans was just a waste. Or maybe, not seeing as his fuzzy mana vision, indicated that a few had already lost their effectiveness. By the left side of the bed was that young girl, who was sitting down engaging in conversation with the woman on the bed, and standing on the right was an older looking man with a frankly amazing moustache, who was regarding him with an appraising expression. At the foot of the bed was a stacked fruit basket with several fruits that he didn't know the name of, and some that he did.

  "I am Rex Mondue," the same man said in a stately voice, as he walked towards him and raised a hand in greeting. Wordlessly, he matched the greeting and wasn't surprised to feel a jolt of foreign mana. It was the magician equivalent of gripping the hand too tightly. A quick and dirty way to take one's measure, and gauge one's mana level and one that wouldn't work here. The slightest gasp and flinch was more than enough to tell that he had won and so he retracted his hand and favored him with a smile.

  "I'm Banks," he said. "No surname. Is that bananas I see? I didn't think you got them at this clime and time." Without saying another word, he reached over and snatched a banana from the fruit basket, before peeling it open.

  "How long has it been since you've seriously, used mana," the man said, recovering his composure, but their was a look of wariness now on his face, but not yet hostility.

  "Been a while," Banks admitted, taking a bite of the fruit. "_ still used i fir bazic ztuffs." He swallowed the banana in his mouth, smiling happy at the taste of the sweet fruit. "What do you want to ask me."

  "My daughter brought back a fanciful story of deific possession, being the reason for my wife's illness," he said gesturing at the smiling, yet tired looking woman on the bed. "I didn't believe it at first, but the evidence bares out."

  "I know I can still hardly believe it," he said, looking at the woman. "Hello." he said giving a short wave.

  "Hello," she responded, her voice weak, favoring him with a smile. He ate more of his banana in response.

  "The problem, is that my wife is not the only person who got sick," he said. "A few of our employees have turned up with the exact same deal, and while I can easily get all of them out of the city. I don't believe I can do it indefinitely nor can I continue if the number of sick people increases."

  "Quite the dilemma," Banks stated.

  "Quite," the man said. "I regret having to ask you further, but do you know how long the effect will last, or if there is any method to appease or ward off the Festering Stream."

  "No, because it's not supposed to be here in the first place," Banks stated firmly. "I've said before that the Festering Stream is drawn to empire's that are in decline, or should have died. It's a being of decay and entropy. I don't know of any method that can chase it off. But..." he paused for a moment, before walking up to the woman on the bed. "I'm sorry could I please have one of the used up talismans?"

  "Why do you need them?" the woman said. "I'm sorry I can't tell which one's are used up or not."

  "That one over there," he pointed to one on her neck. "And I need them for an experiment."

  "Then gladly," the woman said, taking off the one he pointed to and handed it to him. The talisman was devoid of the Holy Light, and instead bore the unmistakable taste of the Stream. "Once a talisman burns out you should remove it or it's just going to get filled with something worse," he said crumpling the talisman into a small ball, before swallowing it whole.

  The room fell silent as he did that, nobody else saying a word and there was a brief moment when nothing was happening. The next second the roof seemed to fall away, and then the walls and then the floor, all seeming to rot away in real time, as matter disintegrated under the power of entropy, all laws turning insubstantial against that great and destined end. The sickly sweet smell of rot pervaded his nostrils and he felt a certain sense of warped familiarity as he was submersed by the freezing rusty-orange water. In the distance countless stagnant streams, each a universe onto themselves, seemed to branch off, all heading slowly towards the inevitable end. The flow getting slower and slower and slower, until time itself seemed to fall away leaving a cold eternity. Occasional glimpses of something solid appeared in the Festering Stream, only for them to be eroded over an eternity that nevertheless in an instant.

  The whole thing felt akin to the River of Time as if it was a tributary or a distributary of that great River or maybe the River and the Stream were twins or one in the same, viewed through a warped perspective were not time and entropy sisters of a sort. Maybe that was why he felt so welcomed and repulsed at the same time. Dragging his mind away from the inconceivably vast Stream he surfaced as he had done many times before and the floor, walls and roof reassembled himself as he found himself once more on solid ground, before he collapsed to his knees and threw up the contents of his stomach.

  "I knew I shouldn't have eaten that banana," he groused as he looked at the orange and black mess, before him.